Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob

by Kevin Weeks and Phyllis Karas

Book Overview

I grew up in the Old Colony housing project in South Boston, a tough, working class, mostly Irish neighborhood. I went from being a Golden Gloves boxer to a bouncer in a popular Southie bar called Triple O's. I got into many fights, knocked out a lot of people, and got noticed by one person in particular. People paid him a great deal of respect, came to him with their problems. Sure, I knew who he was. I'd heard stories. He was tough. He could...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061122696
• ISBN13: 9780061122699
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

To be brutally honest, I couldn't put it down!

This book had my attention the whole time. An unbelieveable story. To know that Weeks was hanging out with Jimmy Bulger and Stevie Flemmi regularly made it anything but dull. These guys basically did whatever they wanted to with permission. You could say at the time they were getting away with murder. It seems like Weeks shows some remorse for chosing to live his life that way and I'm glad he wants to redeem himself. He should be sorry for causing pain to families of the victims. To learn that so many people were living a lie including the supposed good guys.In the end just about everybody was a rat! Pretty right about the title. If you're into this stuff you'll probably love the book.

Ghost-Written, But Fascinating

Weeks was gangster James "Whitey" Bulger's right-hand man for years in Boston's clannish underworld. He doesn't have much use for other accounts of how Bulger and his brother, Billy, corrupted Massachusetts for decades, not surprisingly. This book is best read as part of a trilogy on the same subject, including "Black Mass" by two Boston Globe reporters and "The Brothers Bulger" by Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist. Weeks offers the insider's perpective on gangster life in South Boston. The list of murders, extortions, beatings and scams piles up as the book goes on. What makes this book readable is that Weeks is intelligent, helped by his ghost-writer, so the reader gets a detailed glimpse of a side of life in Boston known only to a few. Well worth the time.

Honest facts about Crime

A very honest account of crime in Boston. I never liked the author at all throughout the book. Throughout the book he discusses how he grew into the life of crime, and almost wishes to gather sympathy from the reader. No sympathy here. He deserves what he got interms of jail time. And probably should have been given life/electric chair. Aside from that, I couldn't stop reading about the stuff he was involved in. Irish Mafia details are interesting.

You can take the Bulger boys out of the projects, but you can not take ...

In a scene from his book, "While the music lasts - my life in Politics" Billy Bulger recalls a conversation he had with his father before entering politics. His father cautioned that he probably never escape the association with his brother Jimmy Bulger - then serving time for a string of bank robberies. Kevin Weeks book is an insider's account on life with Jimmy Bulger. The book describes the techniques used by Jimmy Bulger to create and administer a criminal empire. It shows how Bulger used murder and corruption of high ranking officials to amass millions. The book shows a great deal of similarity between the Bulger brothers. Both Jimmy and Billy are bookish, shrewd with great attention to small details. Jimmy Bulger seems to act with a greater sense of purpose than your standard mobster. Weeks recalls that Jimmy Bulger would often help "the little people of South Boston" with money or acts of kindness. Jimmy Bulger attempts to keep heroin out of Southie tells burglars to move out to wealthier neighborhoods in Newton and Wellesley. We also get the impression that Jimmy Bulger attempted to "insulate" his brother Billy from his life of crime. But, in the end Billy Bulger attended many many meetings with his brother Jimmy and cohort Stephen Flemmi. I will never understand the morality of Billy Bulger and family. A devoted church going Catholic, Billy Bulger apparently had no qualms about spending time among a group of men that committed at least 30 murders. How can someone as smart as Billy Bulger possibly claim ignorance of all these crimes? Kevin Week's book is the ultimate condemnation of the Bulger family and the people of South Boston that kept electing Billy Bulger. The book validates the worst fears of many people of Massachusetts during the years that Bill Bulger rose to power in the Massachusetts Legislature and Senate. For me the saddest part of the story is that I actually think Billy Bulger contributed many solid years of public service to the state of Massachusetts, but I won't overlook the blood on his hands. Since I don't think we will hear from Jimmy Bulger, Kevin Weeks has likely written the last word on this generation of Bulgers - lets hope the next generation of Bulgers can do better.

The Brutal Truth About Whitey

It is truly telling that Massachussets, the undisputed capital of cultural Liberalism, has also produced Whitey Bulger. To myself, a person who has been following the case from out of state, reading the memoirs of Whitey's closest confidant and surrogate son was an opportunity I could not pass up. I am so very happy that I bought this book! Mr. Weeks's account protrays America's most reviled gangster not only as a man who refused to play by the rules of cop or criminal, but as a man of flesh and blood. The same man who doled out Thanksgiving turkeys to families in the projects also gunned down suspected informers in cold blood, even as he sold out his own underlings to the FBI whenever he felt it useful. Whitey also, like certain HBO characters, lived by a twisted moral code which he had created for himself. He protected drug dealers in his neighborhood as long as he got his cut and as long as they weren't dealing heroin. Why? Because according to Whitey hash, pot, and cocaine addicts can still function while heroin addicts turn into zombies. Inconsistent? Yes. On some sick, twisted level it makes sense, though. Not that I agree with him or anything. Also, according to Kevin Weeks, when Whitey was told by a doctor to simplify his life he lowered the number of his mistresses from four to two. It wasn't as if he was going to stop philandering, though. Anyone who has read "Street Soldier" will know of his fondness for teenaged girls. Boy did this guy have some serious issues! Not only that, but the news that Whitey and his partner, Stevie Flemmi, were FBI informants not only violated the neighborhood code of silence, it virtually obliterated it. After the story broke, Kevin Weeks, who was by then in Federal Prison, was actually ENCOURAGED to cooperate with the authorities by his fellow gangsters. Why? Because there's no problem with ratting on a rat. And considering that Whitey Bulger has already taken his place as among the Pantheon of America's most notorious villains, this book will remain a vital guide to anyone who wishes to know what truly made him tick. I, for one, am very grateful to Mr. Weeks for writing this book and I am also hoping that he stays on the straight and narrow.